Six Rockwood Students Named Finalists in 'Picture the Music' Competition

Students from Green Pines and Ridge Meadows elementary schools were named top-100 finalists in this year's St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) "Picture the Music" contest.

Green Pines fourth-graders Brynlee, Carlie and Emmie and Ridge Meadows second-grader Evie, fourth-grader Sophie and fifth-grader Hunter had their artwork selected out of a pool of more than 500 submissions from schools across the St. Louis area.

Picture the Music is an annual cross-curricular program invites students in grades K-6 to experience music and art as powerful strategies for emotional regulation. Through listening to music and using painting or drawing to express how it makes them feel, students begin to understand and process their emotions in new and healthy ways.

Students listened to Contact, “Codes” (Mvt. II), a piece by SLSO composer-in-residence Kevin Puts, and responded by creating artwork inspired by the music. Students were encouraged to consider what colors, shapes, images and emotions came to mind while listening. They continued to listen periodically to the piece while choosing their own materials and developing their own ideas.

The Rockwood students will be honored among the contest finalists at an awards ceremony March 25 in Powell Hall at the Jack C. Taylor Music Center. The finalists’ artwork will be displayed at the Taylor Music Center from March 20-29. Then, it will go on tour to the St. Louis Art Museum and the James S. McDonnell Planetarium until April 26.

Check out of the students' artwork below!

Brynlee, "Musical Transportation," Carlie, "Tom and Jerry's Final Fight," and Emmie, "The Colors of Music," fourth grade, Green Pines

Evie, "Harmony Value," second grade, Ridge Meadows

Sophie, "Competition Risk," fourth grade, Ridge Meadows

Hunter, "Electric Symphony," fifth grade, Ridge Meadows